Pau Gasol (667,767), who made his second All-Star team last season as a reserve and became the 27th Laker in franchise history to be an All-Star, has some work to do to catch Nowitzki. Not only does Gasol trail by nearly 100,000 votes, he also trails San Antonio’s Tim Duncan (685,390). Gasol did a Web chat with the Lakers’ team Web site Thursday in hopes of gaining some ground in the balloting.

The Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire (1,143,849) leads the center voting in the West, still way ahead of the Lakers’ Andrew Bynum (676,634).